Council chief’s plea after £100,000 Derwenthorpe dispute cost (From York Press)

Council chief’s plea after £100,000 Derwenthorpe dispute cost

8:20am Tuesday 24th August 2010 in

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YORK’S council chief claims lessons must be learned over the £100,000 legal bill for Derwenthorpe.

As exclusively revealed by The Press yesterday, City of York Council paid more than £100,000 of public money to experts during the protracted dispute with the European Commission over the 540-home Derwenthorpe scheme.

The authority made £60,787.94 to Leeds-based law firm Shulmans during 2009/10, according to documents obtained by using the Audit Commission Act, on top of the £44,575 it shelled out the year before.

The ruling by the Commission, which became involved after the council sold the Derwenthorpe land to the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHF) without going out to open tender, has now cleared the way for the scheme to go ahead.

But council leader Andrew Waller said delays caused by the Government and European politicians meant the legal costs spiralled.

He now says he will provide ministers with the full story of the dispute and hopes it will prevent other similar costly cases happening in the future.

Coun Waller said: “Many councils across Europe have been caught up in similar legal cases with projects to deliver socially beneficial schemes, like Derwenthorpe.

“At times we had to ensure the work of the UK Government departments was done, and we had to assist, through our legal team, with getting this work done in time.

“Indeed, I took a self-funded trip to Brussels to put pressure on Government representatives there to make sure responses were made before deadline set by the Commission. The council made sure all the steps required of York were done quickly and reported to the European Commission. Therefore, I hope central Government has learned these lessons and how they can help minimise the costs to local councils.

“I am in the process of writing up the history of this case to send to new Government ministers for changes to be implemented.”

JRHF will now go out to Europe-wide tender to build the homes, but Derwenthorpe’s opponents say they will continue their attempts to block the project.